camp Look who came out of their cave! || Observing

[Frostbite]

He is exhausted. He has not left the nursery in who knows how long. Kitting took more out of him than he ever expected, leaving him weak and unable to chase after kits like he had originally expected to be doing. He has been resting this entire time, trying to regain his strength. He's done his best to help Halfshade look after all the kits, but he's ashamed to admit that he wasn't able to help as much as he wished he could have.

Today though, he has gotten tired of laying around. His body has had enough time to recover, hasn't it? Surely he can at least stay awake a whole day.

Tired sunken eyes squeeze shut as he exits the nursery to sit outside it. It takes time for his eyes to adjust, and he almost retreats back into the shade of the den. Once he's able to look around, he feels....Foreign. Like a stranger in the camp he has been in since Shadowclan got its name. He can't focus on anything, he feels like he's not even here. Like a ghost.

Everything is as it was. Nothing has changed, and that brings him a sort of comfort. Fatigue still grips him and begs him to go back and lie down, but now that he's out here, he's not ready to go back just yet.

His kits have erased all fears he had initially about parenting. They have given him a warmth in his heart that nothing else could have. He remembers Smogmaw mentioning that the path he was on was punishment enough, and he believed him, but he's beginning to consider it a blessing. He loves his kits. He wouldn't change a thing about what he did. He has a family now, and most of the void in his heart has been filled.

He can sit outside the nursery with renewed faith that everything will be okay. Even if he looks like he's going to fall over at any moment.​

 

[mottlefox]

Mottlepaw is making their way across the camp when, just out of habit, they turn their head towards the nursery. Comically, they flinch back, eyes flying wide and all remnant sleepiness gone from their skinny frame as their hindbrain goes Oh, stars above, there's a ghost in camp. Then, as reality kicks in, they feel guilty for flinching, because it's just Frostbite. Not a ghost. No ghosts in the ShadowClan camp, no sirree (except for little Ghostkit, but she's not in eyesight). He looks terrible, though, like one of those strong breezes could knock him flat on his rump. Composing themself with a shudder, the apprentice pads over on light paws, scruffy tail held high in the air in a friendly manner. Maybe he's hungry or something.

"You look like you're gonna fall over, dude. Can I getcha some prey?"​

 

[Skunktail]

Well, look who was finally out of the nursery at long last. It seemed like some cats got stuck in there forever and it seemed like others just came and went as they pleased. He heard Halfshade swearing in there the other day about Forestshade skipping out again and leaving her kits to be watched by others; he imagined the torbie would eventually get fed up and start clawing at some point! So he naturally kept his distance and only saw Frostbite emerge from his perch a good few tail lengths away.
"Frostbite is free! Unburdened at last from the terrors of..." His voice drops, he raises a paw to his maw at the side to whisper, "...pregnancy." As though the word was cursed and it might yet be given how many litters suddenly sprang up out of nowhere to fill the camp with mewling little creatures. Skunktail liked it actually, seeing so many little worms wriggling around once more like the earlier days of ShadowClan, when Starlingheart was Starlingkit and his mother still ruled the clan. Maybe he'd get to mentor one of these little furballs in the future and the thought makes him hum in amusement before glancing over to Mottlepaw and lowering his paw back to the ground, "Yeah, go grab him something. Heard you went through it, pal." The white tom had been somewhat sick too during this hadn't he? Those kittens born ashen gray with feverfew coats.
​

 

[Frostbite]

He knew it wouldn't be long until someone greeted him, yet even just two cats felt like too much. But he put himself at ease, its okay. He's fine. Mottlepaw brings to his attention just how awful he looks. He knew he looked less than stellar, but did he really look that bad? Then again, what was bad by Shadowclan standards??? He certainly didn't know anymore. He thinks of Pitchstar, briefly. How that tom let himself go as much as he had will always amaze him. Surely he had to have been uncomfortable.

He is now self conscious.

"I do look pretty awful, huh...." He agrees, looking himself over briefly. Bits of moss and faint smudges of dirt.... He'll have to take care of this later.


Foodwise, he isn't sure if he's hungry. He hasn't eaten yet today, yet his stomach does not rumble. Perhaps with his mind focused on other things, he's kind of....Blocked out hunger. Just as he's about to answer, Skunktail appears, announcing that he is free from the burdens of pregnancy.

Frostbite can't help but smile a little. "Free from pregnancy, but not from kit watching." He says. He's glad that his kits aren't too exhausting, though he might be biased. Just a little. "They're not too bad, I suppose."

Even Skunktail insists that he eat something, and Frostbite figures he may as well. "I wouldn't mind a meal, I suppose." He says.

Oh, he sure did go through it. Never again. Nope. "I did... I don't think I ever want to do that again." He adds with a slight chuckle. Cats who have more than one litter are so powerful. "It was worth it in the end, though."​

 

[S A B L E T U F T]

can we leave it behind? — Where once there had been thoughts and plans to continue on his own kin to ShadowClan, now such thoughts were replaced with why he saw himself unfit to. Hearing the caterwauls of Queens crying out often sent him gathering a half-strewn patrol to get out into the forest. Fill his ears with croaking frogs and crickets instead of pained mewls. Then the effort of rearing them. Though the Queens were most often responsible for that, he was selfish. He would miss this hypothetical mate far too much, attention taken from kit squabbles and mischief.

Most importantly, though, Sabletuft feared his own spawn wouldn't like him. He wasn't good with developing little minds and impressionable brains. He was scarred from nose to tail, scary and brooding when by himself. Smiles were a rarity, could his own kit make him split his maw like that? He tried not to compare the possibility too much to Smogmaw, knowing it could be different. It could be very, very different.

"Tired, but you look alive." Sabletuft would comment as he approached the Queen, nodding to his Clanmates. "Swanpaw, you can join Mottlepaw in fetching some prey. We can all share a meal in celebration to Frostbite's first time out of the nursery since... everything." He gave his apprentice a confident nudge toward his denmate before settling in and sitting with the other toms.

"Have you noticed any strengths yet? Or is it too soon to tell." It shouldn't take that long to really tell, right? They only spent so much time being wriggly, pathetic little things before they burst from the nursery and got under his paws. — tags

-- @swanpaw ​